


The Thank You Incident

by koleen



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-05-02 05:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5235320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koleen/pseuds/koleen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Phil is a preschool teacher and Dan is a graduating university student doing volunteer work. Out of lack of other options, they end up being two pretend dads for eight little children who have a knack for wanting their teacher to find someone to fall in love with because they wanted him to stop feeling alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Thank You Incident

  


Phil loved his job very much.

 

He loved kids, and he had the passion for teaching, so being a preschool teacher didn’t feel like a job to him at all. Sure, the kids were very loud sometimes, and most of the time they can’t stay in their seats and liked to run all over the place, but he stayed patient with them, keeping in mind that these kids are merely enjoying their youth, and he was once a kid too so he understood. He was already in his third year of teaching, got the job a year after graduating from university, and he felt like he isn’t going to get tired of it anytime soon. Besides, every three weeks, they accepted a new batch of student volunteers coming from different universities, all of which are graduating from a degree in Education and are out seeking some experience in teaching, starting with the little ones.

“Hey, thanks for coming,” Phil said when the three new volunteers arrived in the classroom. He greeted them all with a smile, shaking everyone’s hands. “Louise and I really appreciate you choosing to volunteer here.” Louise nodded in agreement, chuckling.

 

“Yeah, really! Gosh, these kids are all so adorable but they are quite a handful sometimes! But you’re gonna love them. They’re all bloody sweet,” Louise added with a grin. “Oh, by the way, I think we’re forgetting to introduce ourselves. I’m Louise, I help Phil take care of the children while he teaches.”

 

“I’m Phil,” Phil said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Sorry if I forgot to introduce myself, but hello,” he chuckled softly. “I’m the teacher, I guess.”

 

Phil saw the lone woman among the three volunteers look at both her companions, as if encouraging them to speak up. When nobody did, she rolled her eyes and then proceeded to clasp her hands together all of a sudden, the sound making the two men beside her jump a little. Phil and Louise both snorted, trying their best not to laugh.

 

“Alright!” the woman said cheerily. “Since _nobody_ else wants to introduce themselves, I’m going to _woman_ it up and do it,” she looked at the two men again, glaring at them pointedly, and they both avoided her gaze. Phil couldn’t suppress his giggle at the sight. “Anyway. Hello, I’m Sage, at your service. I can teach the kids about feminism,” she said proudly. Louise clapped at her enthusiasm.

 

“Uhm. I-I’m PJ, at your service, too,” one of the men spoke up, raising his hand awkwardly. “I can help with the kids with art and stuff,” he finished, giving Phil and Louise a nod each, smiling.

 

“Okay, that leaves me, I guess,” the other man started, grinning. “Hi, my name is Dan. Uhm, I think I can help with music?” he continued, seemingly unsure. He paused for a few seconds, debating with himself. “Yeah, I think I’m going to be okay at music,” he decided, giggling. “Nice to meet you.”

 

*

 

_All the volunteers seemed really nice,_ Phil thought after his first day with the new people. _Kinda._

 

He was resting in his bedroom after a somewhat long day, deciding to just lounge around in his bed while mindlessly browsing random Wikipedia articles like he always did before he dove into organizing his lesson and activity plan for the next school days. After a few minutes into reading the article about the mantis shrimp, his mind started to fly somewhere else, and that’s when he started thinking about the new volunteers.

 

Sage intimidated Phil and Louise at first, as her personality was really strong but in a positive way, but eventually she came through. Soon enough, during recess to be exact, she and Louise were talking to each other like they’ve been friends for years. Sage was also really beautiful, appearance-wise. She had long, wavy brown hair that had a dyed streak of red in it that the kids often asked about. She was also kind of short, being 5 foot 4. All in all, she was great. Sage evidently got along with everyone, as she was very sweet, and also extremely patient, so unsurprisingly, all the kids adored her.

 

PJ was a sight to see. He was quiet, but he was a stand out in his own way. At one point, a little girl accidentally smudged paint on the sleeves of PJ’s shirt, and she immediately apologized repeatedly and nearly cried, but PJ assured her that it was okay, and told her that great artists often made a mess here and there. All eight kids went to him for help with their finger paintings after the incident, and he gladly helped every single one of them, not even a tad bit annoyed at the children. He smiled at every question thrown at him even though he’s been asked the same ones hundreds of times, and even gave a pat on the head and a thumbs up to everyone who showed them their masterpieces. Phil felt somehow attracted to him, his gay ass not being able to resist a boy with great curly hair and pretty green eyes who is also good with kids, but by the end of the day, he decided he’s not his type. _Too good to be true_ , he thought. _Also probably taken. And straight._ He laughed to himself.

 

And then there was Dan.

 

Phil is annoyed at Dan.

 

Well, he isn’t particularly bad, Phil knew it to himself. The kids actually loved him and Louise thought that he looked like that cool big brother who’s in high school who liked protecting his younger siblings from bullies. _Definitely boyfriend material, I mean, a pianist? And his baby face just screams wanting to be called “darling.” I’m praying for you,_ he remembered Louise saying during nap time, elbowing Phil suggestively with a wink. _Come on, Phil,_ _you told me you liked boys who knew how to work their fingers with—_ he didn’t even let her finish. He immediately tried to tackle her and cover her mouth. The three volunteers looked at them worriedly, seeming as if they’re contemplating if they chose the right preschool to volunteer in. Louise and Phil immediately apologized for the slight commotion, grateful to not have woken up any of the sleeping children.

 

If he’s going to be honest, he’s mostly annoyed at Dan because he finds him really attractive and he wasn’t really planning on getting a crush on any volunteers, especially on one who’s four years younger than him. He tried to continue reading the Wikipedia article he was on, but he kept on spacing out. _Well, he’s the first pianist we had, and I really like—_ he shook his head, forcing the idea out of his head. “AH!” he shouted, done with his own shit after the fifth time he read a paragraph without understanding a single word because his mind kept on running back to Da—“Nope. Nope, nope, nope. I’m going to drink some coffee and start with my lesson plan,” he said to himself proudly. “Yes! That’s right. I’m going to get my shit together and absolutely _not_ think about cute men with pink cheeks and adorable hobbit hair, no matter how hot I find them when they smile and laugh! Ha!” Phil declared, closing his laptop and putting it aside. He smiled to himself for a second, pleased with himself. But in the next second, he was covering his face with his pillow because he couldn’t get Dan out of his mind.

 

“I’m twenty five, I don’t need this,” he said, his voice muffled.

 

The Dan in his mind winked at him, and Phil found himself excited to see him again.

 

He needed his coffee more than ever.

 

*

 

The next two weeks went swimmingly, and Phil was relieved. He didn’t tell Louise about what he really thought of Dan, so she never brought it up again, and Phil eventually got comfortable with just secretly enjoying looking at Dan playing with the kids, smiling to himself whenever Dan did something cute in a hopefully not creepy way.

 

_I should really ask him out,_ Phil thought. But he felt his heart sink a little when he realized he wasn’t even sure if Dan was into men. Heck, even if he did, he was 80% sure Dan wouldn’t like him back. He was a little odd, and he was proud of it, but most of the time it didn’t really bring the boys to the yard even if he laid out a dozen glasses of milkshake.

 

*

 

Phil and Louise usually let the children decide what they wanted to play as a group, with the condition that nobody got excluded and that it won’t be dangerous when they play it. They believed that it helped the kids develop teamwork, making them less shy and helping them come out of their shells more often.

 

“Let’s play House!” one of the little girls suggested during recess. Everyone agreed, all the children expressing their excitement. Phil couldn’t help but smile to himself. Little children had no real concept of what’s “for boys” and “for girls.” They do what they like, they do what they enjoy.

 

“I want teacher to play the dad!” a boy suddenly said. The children oooh’d, giggled, and clapped at the suggestion, agreeing to their classmate. Phil groaned jokingly.

 

“Me again? But I already played dad last week!” he pretended to complain.

 

“But you’re a good at playing dad, teacher!” another girl retorted, which quickly got followed by a series of her classmates saying yes as support, everyone agreeing that Phil was a good dad. Phil smiled, somewhat flattered. He was glad the kids thought of him that way.

 

“Who’s gonna play the mum?” another one of the little girls raised. “It can’t be Louise because she’s married!” she continued. The children booed and chuckled and Louise laughed at the sight.

 

“Why can’t I play the mum? I would love to marry Phil as a friend if I weren’t married!” Louise asked, pouting.

 

“No!” the children shouted in unison.

 

Louise laughed again. “Why not?” she asked, grinning.

 

“Because we want teacher to fall in love already!” a girl said, looking upset. “We don’t like teacher feeling alone anymore.” There were murmurs of agreement. Phil blushed, surprised at the statement, looking at his feet.

 

“Oh, alright!” Louise said, smiling. “I understand! No can do then, so we’re going to have to make one of our new friends the mum again so teacher can fall in love, yes?” The children all nodded, looking excited again. “What about Sage?”

 

“Nah, I can’t,” Sage responded, putting her tongue out at the kids. The kids complained, but they laughed. “I forgot to tell everyone about this, but, I’m kinda… Uhm… Gay.”

 

“What does that mean?” a little boy asked curiously.

 

Sage smiled, finding the pure innocence of the boy really adorable. “It means I only like girls.”

 

“What! That’s possible?” another boy questioned, looking extremely baffled.

 

“Yes, it is! I actually have a girlfriend, you see,” Sage responded, grinning. Louise’s jaw was dropped, but she was amused at all the new information she was getting. Dan and PJ were at the sides, nodding, probably already knowing about this ages ago. Phil on the other hand, started to get nervous.

 

“Is she pretty?” a girl asked sweetly, looking excited.

 

“Yup, she’s really pretty and I love her very much.” All the children giggled once the word “love” got mentioned. “So, how about two dads instead?”

 

“Yes!” another girl suddenly exclaimed, standing up in her excitement. “I actually have two dads so can we please, please, _please_ have two dads today?” she asked, pouting. All her classmates yelled “ _yes!_ ” in unison, everyone getting excited.

 

“Can PJ be the other dad?” a girl asked. PJ laughed immediately.

 

“Nah, I can’t, I’m sorry,” he apologized politely, smiling, making all the children groan in disappointment. Phil and Louise raised their eyebrows.

 

“But why?” a boy retorted, pouting. PJ laughed again.

 

“I actually have a boyfriend, so I’m really sorry, I also can’t fall in love with teacher,” PJ explained, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, smiling.

 

Phil’s and Louise’s jaws dropped immediately. _Well, at least I got the ‘already taken’ part right,_ Phil thought, giggling to himself.

 

He stopped giggling when he realized that Dan was the only option left.

 

He heard Louise snorting beside her, and he threw her a look that screamed _help me_ but she just looked up at the ceiling, pointing her lips, feigning innocence.

 

“Dan can play the other dad, guys,” Sage suggested, sounding innocent but all the adults could tell that she was teasing Dan. “Dan’s single and ready to fall in love.” She nudged Dan, wiggling her eyebrows at him suggestively. “And also very gay.”

 

“Shut up, I’m bi!” Dan pushed Sage to the side, looking extremely flustered, and cheeks all red. Sage started laughing so hard and began to tear up, doubling over a few times in the process. “Anyway,” Dan coughed then continued. “Yeah, I’m free to play the other dad.”

 

Everyone all clapped and cheered, including Louise who was looking _way_ too happy with the result of a preschool playtime casting call, and Sage who was obviously cheering and clapping just to annoy Dan.

 

“Alright, let’s start!” Louise said, clasping her hands together. “What scenario do you all want for today? Raise your hand if you have a suggestion!” All of the children raised their hands.

 

“Mary! What’s your suggestion?” Louise asked the kid. She stood up and grinned proudly.

 

“I want our dads to bake together! And we’re going to help!”

 

“Ooooh! Nice one! Is everyone alright with that?” Unsurprisingly, everyone agreed. “Okay, then! Let’s start. Dan and Phil, you go to our “kitchen area” over there. And you kids grab a kitchen utensil of your choice and start working! Have fun!” 

 

There were lots of squealing and running coming from the children who all went immediately towards the play kitchen area. Dan followed suit soon after, taking a seat in front of the small toy kitchen sink. Phil on the other hand, was quite reluctant to move.

 

“Go on, Phil, you can do this. It’s just playtime,” Louise encouraged sincerely. “Unless, you want this for real?”

 

“Shut up,” Phil dismissed, making Louise giggle. He sighed and started walking to the play kitchen area. _It’s just playtime, nothing’s going to happen._

He quietly sat beside Dan, who was already chopping some toy vegetables with some of the kids. Phil immediately felt nervous because even though he’s had Dan volunteering in the preschool for days, he’s never had him that close. Phil could hear some snickering in the distance, and he knew it was from Louise and the others, so he tried his best to ignore it. He took a deep breath and sucked it up, thinking, _hey, I’m not going to be nervous about something as trivial as playtime._ So he decided to talk to Dan.

 

“Hi.”

 

Dan jumped a little, startled by the sudden interruption. “Oh, hi. I didn’t notice you come, oh my god.”

 

Phil laughed at Dan’s surprised expression, the queasiness in his stomach going away at the sight for some reason. “I’m sorry about that. Anyway, can I help with anything?”

 

“You should start chopping the onions, other dad!” one of the kids interrupted. Another one of them handed Phil a toy chopping board, knife, and onion. He immediately started pretending to chop the toy onion, getting a bit more comfortable and confident despite Dan being sat right beside him.

 

Dan started giggling beside him, and Phil couldn’t help but look at him, still pretending to chop the toy onion. “What’s so funny?” Phil asked, slightly giggling himself.

 

“I’m laughing at myself because I’m actually kinda enjoying myself right now,” Dan shook his head, smiling. “I’ve decided that the key to happiness are toy vegetables, who knew, right?” Both of them chuckled. “Anyway, I’ve never actually talked to you before, and I kind of feel like I’ve missed out. You seem like a great teacher,” Dan said sincerely, and Phil looked down, his cheeks heating up.

 

“Thanks, I guess. You’re not so bad yourself,” Phil responded, finally gathering the courage to look at Dan again. The other man grinned, continuing to pretend to chop his assigned toy vegetables. “So, Dan, you’re graduating this year, right? What are your pla—OW!”

 

“Phil!” Dan exclaimed, letting go of his toy knife and vegetables, immediately facing Phil again. The children started to gather around the commotion, confused, and the other adults ran towards the play kitchen area, deeming Phil’s sudden yelp worrying. “Oh my god, are you alright?”

 

“Yes, I just kind of accidentally—“

 

“Christ, Phil! Your finger is bleeding a little!” There were audible gasps heard from the children, but surprisingly, no one ran away at the sight of blood, and instead, they all huddled together even closer to see. “How did you even get cut? You were using a toy kni—“

 

“Our dad has a boo-boo!” one of the kids interrupted, and some of the other children covered their mouths, looking shocked.

 

“Our other dad needs to kiss it so it gets better!” another one suggested, and everyone else agreed, and started to crowd around Dan, begging him to kiss Phil’s “boo-boo.”

 

Louise was already holding a first aid kid to cover up Phil’s small finger cut with a bandage, but Sage stopped her, grinning while looking at her suggestively. Louise immediately understood and started snickering. Sage coughed and took one step forward.

 

“Oh no! Dad has a boo-boo!” Sage declared, sounding innocent. “Who wants Dad Number 2 to kiss his boo-boo?” The kids all started to squeal, prodding Dan to kiss Phil’s boo-boo even harder. Dan glared at Sage who was already laughing and gripping a smirking PJ’s arm, shaking him in the process.

 

“Fine,” Dan mumbled. “I’m going to kiss Dad Number 2’s boo-boo.”

 

The children cheered and hugged Dan, making him smile a little. But, Phil though. Phil was already sweating so hard, wishing for the ground to swallow him whole. “Phil?”

 

Phil choked on his own spit, but he managed to reply. “Uh, yeah?”

 

“Is it okay if I…?”

 

“Sure, just get it over with,” Phil mumbled, closing his eyes. “Whatever makes the kids happy.”

 

“Whatever makes the kids happy,” Dan repeated.

 

Phil kept his eyes closed, but soon enough, he felt hands wrap around his slightly injured hand. The hands were soft and careful, slightly clammy, but he still felt somewhat secure. Little by little he felt Dan’s warm breath ghosting over his hand, and it took all Phil’s strength not to start shaking. And then finally, Dan’s lips connect to his injured finger, just brushing over it for a second. Phil braved opening his eyes but immediately regretted it, because Dan didn’t let his hand go.

 

“All better?”

 

Phil nodded, smiling a little. “Yeah. All better.”

 

The children cheered again, hugging both Dan and Phil. Louise, Sage, and PJ laughed in the distance, amused by the events. Playtime is so exciting.

 

All of a sudden, one of the little girls started crying. Louise and the others ran to her immediately, fixing her hair and rubbing her back, trying to calm her down.

 

“What’s wrong, flower?” Louise asked worriedly.

 

“Our dads do not love each other anymore!” she yelled, crying even harder. The other kids started to sniffle, and all the adults started to worry.

 

“What? No! Look, Dad Dan already kissed Dad Phil’s boo-boo!” Louise said cheerily, but she was starting to panic a little.

 

“But Dad Phil didn’t thank Dad Dan when he made his boo-boo all better!” The girl cried harder.

 

“Phil, say thank you, quick!” Louise asked, alarmed because all the other children are starting to look like they’re about to cry.

 

“T-Thank you, Dan!” Phil immediately said.

 

“There we go! Dad Phil already thanked Dad Dan,” Louise said, tucking the girl’s hair behind her ear. “All better now, sweetheart?” she asked sweetly.

 

“No! Dad Phil didn’t kiss Dad Dan! Whenever my mum thanks my dad, she kisses dad on the lips because they love each other! Our dads don’t love each other!” She started to sob, and all the other kids started to cry as well, and Louise, Sage, and PJ tried to calm all of them down, but nothing was working.

 

Phil suddenly found himself getting pulled by the collar, and before he fully grasped what was happening, Dan’s hands were already on both sides of his head. Dan’s eyes met Phil’s startled ones for a split second, then Dan spoke softly.

 

“Whatever makes the kids happy?”

 

Phil nodded in response, confused, not fully understanding what was going on.

 

And that’s when Dan leaned in, pressing his lips to Phil’s abruptly, making Phil’s eyes widen.

 

The kiss was sudden, but their lips felt soft against each other. Phil couldn’t help but forget the situation and his own hands made its way to the back of Dan’s head, his fingers running through Dan’s hair. He felt Dan move his lips against his, and without thinking he started to kiss back, his stomach flipping over and over again with the feeling of someone’s lips against his—

 

“ALRIGHT!”

 

The person who shouted sounded happy, but a hint of panic was evident in the voice. Dan and Phil jumped at the interruption, immediately opening their eyes and breaking apart. They both looked around in shame and saw that all the children had already stopped crying and were looking at them with wide eyes. Both of their faces heated up in embarrassment, and Phil started coughing while Dan started to fiddle with the hem of his shirt.

 

“I think Dad Phil and Dad Dan already thanked each other enough, don’t you think?” the person continued. It was Sage. 

 

“Dan looked like he was eating teacher’s face!” a kid yelled, looking slightly grossed out.

 

“Kissing looks gross, I’m never going to kiss anyone!” another one followed, sounding slightly distraught.

 

Sage snorted, but kept her composure. “Dan and Teacher Phil are sorry! Also playtime’s over for all of you little beans so let’s start cleaning up and prepare for dismissal so mum and dad can pick you up, does that sound good?” All the kids shouted in agreement, immediately starting to clean up the mess they made during playtime. Everyone looked happy and over the… Thank You incident.

 

Dan and Phil couldn’t decide if it was the worst day or the best day of their lives.

 

*

 

All the kids were already picked up by their parents, and all the adults were finally alone in the classroom, everyone looking particularly tired. They all weren’t saying anything for a while, the air still extremely awkward because of the incident during playtime.

 

“Okay, you know what, I have a plan,” Sage suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence. “Does anyone want to know what my plan is?” When nobody responded, she continued. “My plan is I’m going to leave right now and head straight home, and maybe watch a couple of videos of people falling off boats, and then I’m going to cook the shit out of my dinner, eat the shit out of my dinner, shower, and then get a good night’s sleep. Does that sound good to anyone else or what?!”

 

Louise started laughing, and then replied. “Sounds good to me.”

 

PJ grinned. “Yeah. My plans are going to be something like that, too.”

 

Dan and Phil stayed silent, still ashamed of earlier events.

 

“Alright!” Sage said happily. “Let’s go home, _Louise_ and _PJ_.” Sage immediately grabbed Louise’s and PJ’s bags, handing it to them then pulling them out the door. Louise poked her head into classroom quickly, managing to mouth “tell me about it tomorrow”to Phil before getting yanked out by Sage again. The door slam shut behind them, and Dan and Phil got left alone.

 

Nobody talked for a few moments, but both of them got up and picked up their bags. Phil stood awkwardly by the door, not knowing what to do next. He really liked Dan and would love to ask him out on a proper date, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up just because of a kiss that was probably meaningless and only happened due to the heat of the moment.

 

But in the back of Phil’s mind, he was really hopeful that it could work. So his mind continued to juggle asking Dan out or not, perfectly knowing he probably looked really stupid standing by the door by himself like that.

 

But Phil didn’t need to make a decision anymore because he felt a hand wrap around his own, loosely. Dan stood there beside him, looking at the floor, obviously quite nervous, biting his lower lip.

 

“Uhh… Dan?” Phil braved, a little confused.

 

“Do you want to go out with me?” Dan blurted out, looking up at Phil for a split second, but when Phil caught his eyes, he immediately looked down and started rambling. “I-I mean. Like. I really like you and you’re really nice and you’re cute when you play with kids and stuff and I figured maybe we could—“

 

“Hey,” Phil interrupted, nudging Dan slightly. Dan looked at him, eyes hopeful, and Phil couldn’t help but smile. He gripped Dan’s hand tighter, their hands finally intertwining properly. “Of course I want to.”

 

“Okay,” Dan smiled shyly. “Cool.”

 

“Cool,” Phil smiled back. They started to walk out the school. “Do you want a ride home?” Phil asked once they reached the exit.

 

“Only if it’s not a bother, I live three streets away,” Dan responded. “Also, I’m really sorry that I got way into playing House and accidentally kissed you er… Passionately,” Dan apologized, rubbing the back of his neck.

 

Phil chuckled at Dan’s honesty and sincerity, finding it extremely adorable. “Of course it isn’t a bother, Dan.”

 

“Thanks, Phil,” Dan smiled shyly.

 

Dan and Phil ended up getting engrossed in conversation on the ride home, getting to know each other, finding out how much they had in common, laughing at each other’s stupid jokes. They enjoyed each other’s company very much, and little by little, they found themselves wishing for something secretly. _Please make this work, please make this work._

 

Dan ended up heading to Phil’s house instead of his own, and they ended up playing House again.

 

But this time, only one of them was getting called daddy.


End file.
